augmented reality, domestication theory, mobile game, nostalgia
Jaakko Suominen
jaasuo [a] utu.fi
Ph.D., Professor of Digital Culture
University of Turku
How to cite: Suominen, Jaakko. 2025. ”Explaining the Popularity of Pokémon Go (2016) through Nostalgia: A Critical Review”. WiderScreen Ajankohtaista. https://widerscreen.fi/numerot/ajankohtaista/explaining-the-popularity-of-pokemon-go-2016-through-nostalgia-a-critical-review/
Published originally in Finnish: Suominen, Jaakko. 2022. ”Pokémon Go (2016) -pelin suosion nostalgiaselittäminen.” WiderScreen 25 (1-2). https://widerscreen.fi/numerot/2022-1-2/pokemon-go-2016-pelin-suosion-nostalgiaselittaminen/
Nostalgia is a bittersweet feeling, characterized by the longing for past experiences or bygone eras. In this article, I discuss how media explained the popularity of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go within the frame of nostalgia when the game was launched in July 2016. I apply existing categorizations of nostalgia and present a diverse nostalgia-based explanations, including both simple and interpretive nostalgic explanations within the context of media culture. Nostalgia-based explanations are particularly apparent in popular media, as well as in expert discussions and research regarding the popularity and use of media products. In this article, I examine nostalgia-based explanations as a way through which institutional actors, such as media representatives and researchers, “tame” or domesticate understandings of new cultural products in interaction with users, integrating them into established practices. The article’s findings include research on Pokémon and nostalgia as well as news articles published in 2016–2017 concerning Pokémon Go.
Introduction
Allow me to set the scene if I may. It was July 2016 and I was cycling along the shores of Töölönlahti bay in Helsinki, Finland. I rode attentively, ready to dodge an angry barnacle goose mother as she herded her goslings across the bike path from one grassy area to another. Further, requiring my attention was the gaggle of wingless pedestrians filling the path along the shore.
I noticed an increasing number of these people gathering in group, engrossed in their mobile device screens, though I could not quite make out the details of what they were up to. People gazing at the mobile devices was hardly a new phenomenon in 2016, but now people were gathering in parks with something unusual on their minds. As it turned out, they were playing the new Pokémon Go game, which seemed to have taken over mobile screens quickly, in just a few days. Although it had not conquered all screens, millions of people worldwide were nonetheless playing it.
Why were so many people playing this new Pokémon game? What was it? As it turns out, Pokémon Go was an augmented reality game produced by Nintendo and developed by Niantic. The game was called an augmented reality game because it combined elements from the mobile screen with physical movement in the outside environment. News outlets reported on the game’s groundbreaking launch and sought explanations for its popularity. Journalists themselves pondered the reasons and also asked experts and players for explanations. On July 15, 2016, Helsingin Sanomat wrote about Kajsa Roslund, for whom the new game was—paradoxically—a journey back in time:
“Pokémon came on TV just when I started elementary school. I’m sure the game’s appeal lies in the chance to remember familiar characters from childhood. The most interesting are the original Pokémon that you can catch in the game,” says Roslund.
Pokémon games, cartoons, and trading cards reached the height of their popularity in the late 1990s. For children of that era, hunting Pikachu, Rattata, and other Pokémon characters is like a trip 15 years back in time.
“It’s funny to see people in their twenties wandering around downtown with their phones in hand,” Roslund says.
The game’s popularity, due to its important role in the childhood of many, was not the only explanation for the game’s success given in the news. Other explanations included the allure of new technology, the sense of community with other players, and the joy of combining physical activity with new media (for more on the connection between physical activity and gaming, see Turtiainen 2022, 207). But positive reminiscing, often simply referred to as nostalgia, seemed to set Pokémon Go’s success apart from the breakthrough of many other technological novelties. Typically, when new technologies were introduced, the media’s focus was on progress, enthusiasm for trying the novelty, or, sometimes critically, on potential threats such as increased surveillance, job loss, or the consequences of technological malfunctions (see e.g., Pantzar 1996; Suominen 2003).
I was particularly sensitive to the notion of explaining the game’s popularity through nostalgia because of my own research background. I had been studying the so-called retro gaming phenomenon, playing certain kinds of old video games and recycling related elements in consumer culture, since the early 2000s. My research explored the relationship between retro gaming and nostalgia, finding it complex and not necessarily reliant on nostalgia as its only driving force. (See e.g., Suominen 2008; Suominen 2011a; Suominen 2011b; Suominen, Reunanen & Remes 2015; Suominen & Vaahensalo 2019.)
Communication researcher Kristian Redhead Ahm (2020) also points out that instead of discussing retro gaming or nostalgia as the sole reason for return to earlier gaming experiences, we need a more nuanced classification of the relationships people have with old games. Redhead Ahm assigns technical-scientific definitions to these relationships. He refers to retro gaming enthusiasts as amateur archaeologists, amateur art historians, and techno-historians, depending on their areas of interest. He also distinguishes between historical gaming and nostalgic gaming. Historical gaming refers to an interest in the history of the medium, while nostalgic gaming is driven by an emotional connection to previous gaming experiences. Therefore, the relationship between playing Pokémon Go and nostalgia needs closer examination, even though the game was not a retro game at the time of its release but rather a new game that recycled some familiar elements.
The nostalgia-based explanation for Pokémon Go’s popularity, as presented in several popular news outlets, can be summarized as follows: the game held the highest appeal to those who had played the first Nintendo Pokémon games, collected Pokémon cards, and/or watched the Pokémon TV series in the 1990s. For them, the new game revived an emotional interest in the Pokémon theme and its familiar characters, assuming that interest had ever waned. In the news, the experience of nostalgia and retro gaming were sometimes conflated. This Finnish perspective wasn’t unique—similar nostalgia-based explanations were offered in news reports around the world (see e.g., New York Times July 14, 2016; Helahälsingland July 15, 2016; BBC News July 16, 2016). These explanations clearly reflected the temporal span and development of the Pokémon franchise, a vast cross-media phenomenon that digital culture researcher Johannes Koski (2017) names a ”huge transmedia entity” (see also Välisalo & Koskimaa 2022, 179).
In this article, I explore how media use is explained through nostalgia. The article is inspired by media scholar Anu Koivunen’s (2001) analysis of nostalgia, which emphasizes nostalgia’s performative nature—how it produces representations—and the need to study it as such. I interpret this as meaning that, in addition to examining “nostalgia products” such as games, movies, TV shows, or retro cars that evoke a longing for the past, we must also study the popular discourses—the ways of speaking—through which a product or activity is interpreted as nostalgic or explained using the vehicle of recollection. According to Koivunen, nostalgia is not an explanation but a question concerning the objects, their forms, meanings, and effects (Koivunen 2001, 345).
Media scholar Dominik Schrey (2017) has also emphasized the discursive nature of nostalgia. Schrey has studied a phenomenon he calls “analogue nostalgia in digital media culture.” Although Schrey does not mention Pokémon Go in his research, which for its part does not show direct signs of analogue nostalgia, the two are nonetheless connected through the aims of relating earlier media forms, which is referenced in digital products and related discussions. Schrey refers to analogue nostalgia in cases such as smartphone camera apps, which aim to recreate the look of older film cameras in photos and videos, with features like graininess, unevenness, and color imperfections. Even though modern technology enables clear and sharp images, users are also drawn to the possibility of replicating something that appears old—and nostalgic. Schrey divides analogue nostalgia into two forms: discursive and aesthetic. A discursive form refers to discussions, definitions, and explanations surrounding nostalgia, while the aesthetic form relates to applications and their outputs such as images that appear distinctly analogue within a digital environment. In this article, I will focus on discursive media nostalgia (for narrative and nostalgia, see Stewart 1993).
In this article, I will introduce the ways in which media phenomena are explained through nostalgia in news reports—and also in research texts. I will focus on the case of Pokémon Go and explore the role of nostalgia in the processes of adopting and domesticating new innovations. Through this, the article connects to this issue of WiderScreen’s theme of institutionalization.
The following article is largely based on previous nostalgia research and includes examples from Pokémon Go news articles from 2016–2017. However, the data is nonetheless incomplete and does not include all Pokémon Go news published during those years, nor is it based on a representative sample but on a random selection of Pokémon Go news stories. The research approach is, for its part, exploratory and searches for interpretative foundations and suggestions for quality research on nostalgia explanations (Elo & Kleemola 2016, 154–155). I have selectively drawn examples from the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle’s website, broader web searches, and the digital Finnish news Sanoma archive using the keywords “Pokémon Go” and “nostalgia.” The Sanoma archive primarily contains news from Helsingin Sanomat, Ilta-Sanomat, and Taloussanomat from Finnish publishers. Helsingin Sanomat, it should be noted, is the largest newspaper in Finland.
The Sanoma archive contains 256 results for the search term ”Pokémon Go” from 2016 to 2017. When adding ”nostalgia” as a third search term, the results only produced 6 hits. This finding demonstrates that nostalgia is articulated very minimally within the overall number of Pokémon Go news articles, but the searched-news stories also referenced the onset of the Pokémon boom and referenced memories of earlier gaming experiences without directly mentioning nostalgia. However, instead of focusing on playing motives, the most common themes in early Pokémon Go articles from the Sanoma archive were related to Nintendo’s business success, game security issues, concerns caused by playing —especially in public spaces— and overall critiques of the game. It seems that the news themes and their quantities resemble those seen in news covering the success stories of Finnish digital gaming companies in the early 2000s. News about gaming often highlights economic and technological development more than the players themselves (Pasanen & Suominen 2021). While the argumentation in this article is based on selected samples and exploratory data analysis, the text is more theory-driven than data-driven (on the difference between theoretical and empirical research, see Töttö 2012, 57–58).
In the first section of this article, I will examine the relationship between the adoption and domestication theories of new technologies and nostalgia. In the second part, I will discuss how Pokémon Go was explained in Finland through nostalgia and other media frames. In the third section, I will provide a detailed overview of nostalgia research. Finally, in the fourth part, I will present a classification of the different manners through which nostalgia can explain media use.
Pokémon Go and Domestication Theory
Domestication theories address the processes through which new technologies become part of individual’s and communities’ everyday lives. These theories have been developed and applied since at least the 1980s in research on the everyday use of media, for example, examining the roles of television, radio, and computers in routine daily life. These theories have also been applied in many other fields, including both limited case analyses and broader generalizations that span multiple topics (e.g., Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992; Pantzar 1996; Lie & Sørensen 1996; Lehtonen 2003; Morley 2003; Silverstone 2006; Haddon 2007). In more recent studies, domestication theories have been supplemented with additions to the concept such as classifications of new technology usage modes and reflections on reverse domestication—the ways in which types of media are abandoned (e.g., Haddon 2016; Karlsen & Syvertsen 2016; Brause & Blank 2020). Domestication theories can also be seen as part of a broader research tradition on the adoption of technological innovations (e.g., Hård & Jamison 2005).
When looking at Pokémon Go news and research texts through the lens of domestication theory, two interconnected approaches can be clearly identified. The first locates the news as part of a specific phase in the adoption of a new technology. The second examines the news and its changes over a longer period. In domestication theories, the adoption of new technology is most often described as a process with several phases. According to the domestication theory set out in Silverstone and Hirsch et al (1992), these phases include appropriation, objectification, incorporation, and conversion. Appropriation refers to the ways people make a general consumer product their own. Objectification involves a deeper integration of the new technology into everyday routines, while incorporation refers to ways the product is used in different temporal and spatial situations. Conversion, on the other hand, means how individuals’ specific ways of using and attributing meaning to products interact with the usage patterns and meanings of other products in everyday or public discussions and interactions (see also Silverstone 1994). Subsequently, this phase model has been developed in various ways, with phases and overlapping processes being described more complexly. However, it cannot be claimed that the phases of domestication follow each other linearly (e.g., Pantzar 1996, 124–130).
In many phase models and their applications, it is assumed that the adoption of a new technology may begin in the news and public discussion well before the new technology becomes established in everyday life. Mika Pantzar (1996, 125) has named this preliminary phase “dreaming;” whereby we begin to prepare for the arrival of new products even before we get our hands on them—if we ever do. News reporting can, therefore, precede the adoption of a new technology and create an imagined reality about its role in everyday life. People are given—and they create—advance notions about the significance of the new technology, how it relates to their current practices, and how it will change them. This type of speculative news reporting, which can also include descriptions from science fiction literature and films, has frequently accompanied the introduction of new information technologies. Popular news opinion-shaping has been central to the presentation of computers and robots long before they became common in households (Suominen 2003). Similarly, the rapid breakthrough of wearable computers, for example, Google’s smart glasses was discussed in many news stories, despite interest in smart glasses waning—at least for now—within a few years (Saariketo 2017).
The first perspective of domestication theories I described, therefore, relates to how (popular) public discussion precedes the adoption of a new technology in everyday life or engages with the early stages of adoption, such as the first weeks after the launch of Pokémon Go. For its part, the second perspective is more comprehensive, positing that the adoption of new technologies always includes a discursive dimension, which is a layer or element present in all stages of the adoption process (e.g., Hård & Jamison 2005, 14). The new technology being adopted, as well as the thereafter adopted technology, are constantly discussed in writing and conversation, but these discussions can evolve over time. The terminology surrounding the new technology becomes standardized, as do general conceptions of its usage modes, or these conceptions may shift to others. In a way, even if the adopted technology is no longer widely discussed, it is regardless a sign of the discursive dimension’s presence. This could be called discursive silence. Silence is characteristic of a quieter phase in the adoption process, which may end with a reassessment or, for example, the abandonment of the adopted technology. Discussions about the death or end of a product can activate the discursive dimension, so that what was once new is later viewed as former, discarded, or even as waste. Alternatively, the same product can also be viewed as something memorable and elevated as cultural heritage for a specific group or even an entire nation (cf. Sihvonen 2020 and the dormant phases of production processes).
It may seem contradictory to explain the adoption of new technology through nostalgia, as was done with Pokémon Go. However, this account of the Pokémon Go phenomenon also ties into typical modes of explaining new technologies. Even if the new technology is presented as different from the past, as revolutionary, and life-changing, it is nonetheless linked to the past through the naming or descriptions of its functions, so that people can understand what it is all about. I have definied this practice as the rhetoric or discourse of a “safe disruption” (Suominen 2003, 62).
Pokémon Go is a special case of the rhetoric of safe disruption. In this case, the connection between the new and the old may involve a break that specifically explains the experience of nostalgia. In the following section, I will look at how these connections are discussed.
Explaining Media Phenomena Through Nostalgia
Simply defined, nostalgia refers to a bittersweet longing for something from the past. According to literary scholars Riikka Rossi and Katja Seutu, nostalgia “has primarily been understood as a longing for a past, better time that brings pleasure and comfort, and as a return to memories” (Rossi & Seutu 2007, 8). The concept, coined in the 17th century by doctors to describe soldiers’ homesickness, originates from the Greek words nostos and algos. To briefly summarize, the concept gained new meanings in the late 18th and 19th centuries within the intellectual framework of Romanticism, shifting from homesickness to a broader longing for the past. In the 20th century, the focus of nostalgia began to shift towards phenomena related to modernization and consumer culture (Sallinen 2004, 81–85; Koivunen 2001, 326–327; see also Johannisson 2001; Batcho 2013; Vihma 2021). According to sociologist Anni Vilkko, the concept of nostalgia is “flexible and adapts to each socio-historical period” (Vilkko 2007, 14). However, the definition of nostalgia may become too flexible, losing its explanatory power as a result.
Anu Koivunen (2001, 324–325) has noted that when a new cultural phenomenon, such as a song, film, or TV show, needs an explanation for its notoriety or popularity, nostalgia becomes an appealing explanation. Nostalgia is often used to explain the appeal of a product in conjunction with the past. The product’s style can be defined as nostalgic, or its consumption may evoke a nostalgic experience. The consumer recognizes something familiar in a new product, either through past personal experiences or indirectly through phenomena preceding their time. In the case of Pokémon Go, the consumption experience was strongly nostalgic, especially for certain player groups. Collectively-defined nostalgia can also be understood as an institution to which nostalgic explanations are connected.
Koivunen emphasizes that as a rhetorical tool, a nostalgic explanation allows a specific phenomenon to be linked to broader societal and global changes. Within this nostalgic context, a product gains a meaning larger than itself. Through nostalgia, one can examine shifts such as modernization and globalization. Similarly, nostalgia is tied to generational experiences, with entire groups of people, of roughly the same age, relating to a product in similar ways. The person using nostalgia as an explanation—such as a journalist or art critic—can, according to Koivunen, either distance themselves from or identify with the subject and analyze it from multiple perspectives. These individuals may feel a sense of involvement or enthusiasm, or maintain a cooler, more analytical stance toward something they do not personally engage with. Koivunen adds that at its best, “the nostalgic explanation also strengthens the interpreter’s self-image as an intellectual of the postmodern and post-Marxist era, who not only analyzes popular culture phenomena but also does so empathetically and with understanding” (Koivunen 2001, 324–325).
An empathetic and understanding approach was also evident in the way Pokémon Go was written about following its release. Early on, this empathy and understanding did not manifest in the subjective voices of the journalists themselves but rather in how they gave voice to the enthusiastic players. Miikka Hujanen of Ilta-Sanomat wrote about “Pokémon mania” on July 15, 2016, in his interview Laura Takala, who had begun playing Pokémon Go as soon as it was released in the United States. Takala shared her long-time interest in Pokémon and described what made the new game different from the older ones. She spoke directly and excitedly to the journalist, creating a strong connection:
She [interviewee Laura Takala] still remembers the Pokémon craze of the early 2000s.
“Oh, let me tell you, it didn’t end at all. It’s been alive ever since,” she laughs.
Takala is fascinated by how the game rewards physical activity: for example, you can hatch Pokémon eggs by walking 10 kilometers. In just three days, she had walked about 50 kilometers.
“This is fantastic nostalgia, and it also encourages people to get moving. You really get to explore your own city.”
This quote illustrates how the word “nostalgia” is often used in comments and even framed as “fantastic,” but is not directly explained. However, players’ personal memories, the rediscovery of the past, or the continued enjoyment of something cherished are nonetheless emphasized.
In addition to players’ reflections, early expert comments also featured sparse accounts of nostalgia, which began appearing shortly after players were interviewed. The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle interviewed media educator Tommi Tossavainen in an online news article published on July 21, 2016. According to Tossavainen, the appeal of Pokémon Go was based on the simplicity of the game and Pokémon’s strong, nostalgic brand from two decades ago. Tossavainen also linked retro elements to nostalgia, without further defining “retro”: “The game is easy to pick up, and retro elements could play a big role in its popularity” (Yle July 21, 2016).
Game researchers Zack Whalen and Laurie N. Taylor have suggested that when a game transitions from one platform to another, such as from a computer to a mobile phone, a nostalgic experience often arises. This feeling rises because players compare their new gameplay experience with the old one. Simultaneously, the new version “rewrites the memory of the original”, as players experience the old game through a new interface (Whalen & Taylor 2008, 9–10; see also Gazzard 2013). Playing Pokémon Go also represented a kind of rewriting of the old, even though the original game was not transferred as such to a new device. Rather, the Pokémon franchise, which appeared in other media, such as animated series and collectible cards, was adapted into an augmented reality game.
As mentioned earlier, nostalgia was typically one of many reasons for playing the game. For example, the magazine Talouselämä and STT news agency publication both highlighted nostalgia and other reasons for the game’s popularity in the headline of an article on July 20, 2016: “Nostalgia, community, and new technology drive people to try the Pokémon game.” In the article, an anonymous Helsinki-based player explained their excitement about the game by referring to nostalgia: “The main reason for getting excited about the game is that Pokémon is familiar. As a child of the 1990s, Pokémon brings back a sense of nostalgia.” (Talouselämä July 20, 2016; see also Iltalehti July 19, 2016).
While the connection between the past and the new was not immediate in Pokémon Go’s case, it became more prevalent later. Helsingin Sanomat examined Pokémon Go as part of a broader 1990s nostalgia trend a year later, in an article titled: “Ultra Bra [a band], Pokémon Go, Eurodance – Why does nostalgia seem to be everywhere now?” The nostalgia trend received a legitimate popular theoretical explanation, with sociologists and youth researchers Mikko Salasuo and Mikko Piispa emphasizing that the so-called Generation Y had reached a suitable age for reminiscing, following in the footsteps of previous generations.
In summary, the game’s rapid adoption was explained by its combination of something old, something new, and something borrowed—a familiar formula not only for wedding attire but also for the history of technology and new media (Paasonen 2000). As I mentioned when introducing domestication theories, novelty is easier to adopt when it contains something familiar to the user, which is combined with something imported from elsewhere, thereby adding value. The connection between the old and the new can be built in speech by naming the novelty in a familiar way or by describing the novelty more broadly in relation to phenomena and expectations that are already familiar. An article by Janne Simojoki, published on the website of the Vapa marketing agency on July 14, 2016, titled “5+1 Highlights from the Phenomenon Called Pokémon Go,” captured this blend of familiarity and novelty:
Pokémon Go fulfills a childhood fantasy. It’s familiar to anyone who once liked Pokémon: imagine being able to capture pocket monsters in real life! The handheld console version quickly takes a back seat when you can hunt cute little creatures on foot.
(Vapa Media, July 14, 2016.)
From Popular Explanations to Research and Interaction Processes
There were several reasons why the popular media’s explanation of nostalgia in this case was also linked to research on the subject. Either popular explanations influenced the research questions, or popular and academic interpretations coexisted and stabilized in constant mutual interaction. In any case, the popularity of Pokémon Go was quickly followed by a wave of research that studied gameplay through observation, surveys, and interviews. This research was an institutional effort to take control of the new phenomenon. Using empirical data, researchers demonstrated that nostalgia provided a motive for gameplay, at least for some players, or they referred to nostalgia without a clear empirical basis. However, studies rarely analyzed the nature of nostalgia in detail. Nostalgia was taken for granted and was not more precisely defined (for research on Pokémon Go users mentioning nostalgia, see Rasche, Scholmann & Mertens 2017; Yang & Liu 2017; Zsila et al. 2017; Alha et al. 2018; Hamari et al. 2018). This outcome has been typical of the treatment of the subject. Perhaps the reason was that the first studies appeared so quickly after the initial boom of Pokémon Go in a quest to provide quick answers for its popularity. Thus, there was not enough time for deeper cultural analysis, and the Pokémon Go phenomenon had not yet lasted long enough to gain distance. As a result, research articles were primarily based on player surveys.
Nostalgia themes were rarely discussed in studies analyzing the Pokémon Go game itself. There were some exceptions, such as Brendan Keogh’s (2017) article, which began by noting that one of the motivations for the development of the original Pokémon by creator Satoshi Tajiri was nostalgia. Tajiri associated nostalgia with his childhood adventures in rice fields and his collection of insects from the fields. According to Keogh, Pokémon Go players reenacted Tajiri’s original nostalgia by recalling the beginning of their own Pokémon hobby in the 1990s.
Another direction in the interaction between popular explanations and research was related to the Nintendo and Pokémon brands. In the Yle article I previously quoted, Tossavainen mentioned the impact of the brand factor. In research, brand themes appeared somewhat later compared to recognizing nostalgia as a reason for the popularity of playing the game. For example, David Harborth and Sebastian Pape published an article on Pokémon Go in 2020, in which they analyzed the game’s popularity through the concept of childhood brand nostalgia. Their aim was to complement the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and examine the role of childhood brand nostalgia in the adoption and acceptance of new mobile technology. (Harborth & Pape 2020.)
When discussing brands, we must remember the role of companies in deciding which products to bring back and which to leave in the past. Many researchers have noted that Nintendo, in particular, is one of the companies that uses its own history and various product brands, as well as players’ nostalgic feelings and other forms of engagement, by repeatedly reissuing and revamping its gallery of characters and products by re-releasing carefully selected older products. (Whalen & Taylor 2008, 1; Suominen 2012.) This is a phenomenon that game historian Alison Gazzard has called the “mask of nostalgia.” Only certain games and brands, such as Super Mario, Pac-Man, or Space Invaders, are kept alive and developed into product families, while others are not. (Gazzard 2013. See also Newman 2012.) The well-known nostalgia researcher, sociologist Fred Davis (1979, 132–138), has ironically and prophetically written about the “Nostalgia Exploitation Potential, NEP.” Davis predicted that companies could hire nostalgia experts who would identify this potential and select cultural products for reuse and reproduction. According to Davis, companies combine planned obsolescence and revivification in their operations (see also Sihvonen 2020). As a venerable company, Nintendo can be viewed as an institution that also institutionalizes its product brands, such as Pokémon. Thus, Nintendo is a nostalgia production institution.
The observations above show that the recognition of nostalgia and its explanation occur in interaction processes involving multiple parties: players, journalists, researchers, other experts, and product designers. The nostalgic explanation related to Pokémon Go—and a much more general nostalgic explanation—is either the player’s own interpretation or a motive for action defined by a journalist, researcher, or some other interpreter. Typically, the nostalgic explanation arises in a loop, whereby the interpreter assists the actor to understand their actions within the framework of nostalgia and vice versa. For example, a journalist or researcher suggests nostalgia to the player as a reason for playing because they themselves understand it as a hypothetical explanation by comparing the activity to similar past activities, either within the same media format or another, or by reflecting their own personal experiences in the new situation.
The nostalgia loop can also be examined by dividing nostalgic experiences into phases, which is also comparable to the domestication processes of novelties. However, in this case, it is not about adopting something new but rather about recognizing something as familiar. Folklorist Susanna Sallinen (2004, 90–92) has distinguished three stages of the nostalgic remembering process in her analysis of Marcel Proust’s famous literary work on memory, In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu, 1913–1927). The nostalgic experience begins with illumination or awakening: a sensation, object, or stimulus, such as first encountering the Pokémon Go game, which triggers a rapid awakening of a memory. Then, gradually, the individual analyzes their memory and the feelings it has stirred by reasoning, using their consciousness, and reflecting on their previous experiences. After the analysis phase described above, the presentation phase occurs: the reminiscer works through the memory experience, giving into its final form and bequeathing it with artistic or creative expression.
Pokémon Go news articles reflect the interactive production of the phenomenon: both the interviewee and the journalist participate in the same three-phase process of illumination, analysis, and presentation. A third party, such as a researcher’s explanation, may also be involved in the same process. In this case, the illumination was the excitement of playing Pokémon Go and the connection to previously lived and experienced moments that arose during gameplay. The manufacturer of the new product embedded nostalgia potential into the gameplay by linking it to the Pokémon product family. The analysis relates to the fact that, for one reason or another, the player and the journalist compare the gameplay to the player’s previous activities and associations. The investigating journalist facilitates or enables the interviewee’s analysis of the nostalgia experience but may also base their interpretation on their own experiences. The third phase, presentation, is not an artwork in this case but a journalistic presentation in which the journalist gives the player’s memory experience in the form of a newspaper article. The presentations may also be Pokémon Go works produced by the players themselves, utilizing nostalgia, in which case a journalist is unnecessary as a facilitator or presenter.
Types of Nostalgia Explanations
Is it even necessary to label certain players’ experiences with Pokémon Go as nostalgic? Could it simply be that they recognize the familiar Pokémon brand, but this recognition does not evoke any particular feeling of longing? Folklorist Seppo Knuuttila has written about the inflation of nostalgia and its renewed appreciation. According to Knuuttila, nostalgia has “followed a path similar to that of favorite concepts in research; it began to mean almost everything to which we have an emotional connection in the research texts of previous decades. Recently, the concept of nostalgia has returned to texts with more precise and limited meanings constructed from the past.” (Knuuttila 2007, 9. See also Davis 1979, 8.) Although Knuuttila states that nostalgia has returned as a more precise and limited concept, the same cannot be observed in popular texts discussing Pokémon Go or in many related studies. One can argue that in these texts, nostalgia is specifically referred to as a rather vague emotional connection or recognition tied to the product family.
In the previous sections, I have examined the interaction process in which nostalgia is produced as one explanation for the value of novelty. I have also referred to how popular nostalgia explanations vary in nature and scope. Next, I will clarify the typology of these explanations.
Today, perhaps the most well-known authority in nostalgia research is Svetlana Boym. In her 2001 work The Future of Nostalgia, she introduced a division between restorative and reflective nostalgia. Restorative nostalgia refers to actions aimed at recovering something longed for from the past. Reflective nostalgia, on the other hand, is more ironic in nature and understands that a return to a bygone era is impossible but nostalgia nonetheless thrives as it combines elements from the past and the present. (For restorative and reflective nostalgia in game design, see Garda 2013.) The nostalgia explanations related to playing Pokémon Go seem to lean more towards reflective nostalgia, whereby the familiar Pokémon brand is combined with new technology. On the other hand, one might ask whether the experience can be understood as imaginatively restorative: Pokémon Go enables a gaming experience that was originally desired. This is hinted at in a quote from the Vapa Media article dated July 14, 2016: “Pokémon Go fulfills a childhood fantasy. It is familiar to everyone who has ever liked Pokémon: if only pocket monsters could be caught in real life!”
Between restorative and reflective nostalgia, in his work Nostalgia: Theory and Practice (2021), Antto Vihma has discussed banal nostalgia, which has been inspired by Michael Billig’s concept of banal nationalism. With banal nostalgia, Vihma refers to everyday, moderate, and passive expressions and practices of nostalgia. In his analysis, banal nostalgia is specifically related to consumer culture and the more rapid and broader recycling and dissemination of nostalgic products, which has enabled by digitalization, as well as the earlier longing caused by technological change. Vihma specifically refers to the interpretations of nostalgia by sociologist Fred Davis and postmodern theorist Fredric Jameson in the context of discussing banal nostalgia. (Vihma 2021, esp. 11, 195–196, 222–238.) In Vihma’s classification, Pokémon Go, and most of the nostalgia explanations related to it, can be placed in the category of banal nostalgia.
Less frequently than Boym’s classification, researchers highlight Fred Davis’s (1979, 16–29) division (see also Korkiakangas 1999). This division is not based as much on action but rather on the memoirist’s own interpretation of the subject of their recollection, which may lead to actions or products. First, Davis discusses simple nostalgia, which means the idea that things were better in the past. For Davis, reflexive [or reflective] nostalgia is a thought process where a person begins to ponder whether things were actually better before. The third level is interpretive nostalgia, where a person considers why they regard certain past times, events, or products as better than present ones. Davis emphasizes that all levels can coexist simultaneously and should not be viewed as developmental stages with the aim of achieving a higher level of analytical nostalgia.
Davis’s classification can be applied to the categorization of the popular Pokémon Go news. I have noted that most early news articles about the game merely mentioned nostalgia without further pondering its nature. The explanations presented therein could thus be called simple nostalgia explanations. A simple nostalgia explanation refers to the label provided in popular news that explains the actions of individual media users. This label may be associated with a longing for previous media use for a number of reasons. Typically, a simple explanation does not define nostalgia and can be passed over quite quickly as one explanation among many. The reason for a simple nostalgia explanation is that the emotional reaction to the product is named, often unconsciously, in a way that links the emotional reaction to other media and popular culture products. In the context of Pokémon, references may also be made to brands like Lego and Star Wars, which also leverage nostalgia to some extent:
The enrichment from gaming craze is just beginning. Pokémon even challenges Star Wars, whose brand Disney revitalized last year with tremendous success. Around Christmas, Disney will release a new Star Wars film, but likely the top-selling products in toy stores this year will be Pokémon. On Western toy shelves, the only weakness of Pokémon is that they are not yet available in Lego form. Both Pokémon, born in the 1990s, and Star Wars, born in the 1970s, are profiting from nostalgia.
(Helsingin Sanomat, July 20, 2016)
Some popular nostalgia explanations have been far from simple. Following Davis, they could be called interpretive nostalgia explanations but the nature of interpretation is different from that in Davis’s classification. Interpretive nostalgia explanations are rarer in Pokémon Go news than simple descriptions as they reflect broader contemplation of nostalgia in relation to the spirit of the times that encourages nostalgic feelings or about generational experiences in which individuals of a certain age yearn for various familiar aspects of their childhood and youth. This yearning can be commercialized by launching several different products that people wish to consume. Interpretive nostalgia explanations can be divided into general explanations (e.g., the spirit of the times or shared generational experience) or specific explanations in situations where the aim is to analyze more precisely the meanings attributed by individuals to their nostalgic product relationships or categorize nostalgic experiences and functionalities into different categories. The division between simple and interpretive nostalgia explanations is not precise, as the examples cited in this article also demonstrate how even short references to nostalgia begin to position the experience of nostalgia as a feeling shared by gaming enthusiasts of approximately the same age.
| Simple Nostalgia Explanations | Interpretive Nostalgia Explanations |
| A product experience is labeled as nostalgic without further specification, usually immediately after the novelty has risen to popularity. | Includes generalizing or specifying accounts that aim to describe in more detail the nature of the nostalgic product experience, to define its experiencers, and to provide reasons for its nostalgic quality. Interpretive explanations of nostalgia usually require temporal or other forms of distance from the object of interpretation. |
However, interpretive nostalgia explanations typically articulate generalizations in popular news and do not make precise distinctions. Generally, interpretive explanations require more temporal or other distancing from their subject. There is no longer that much daily journalism in which players or other actors are interviewed, for instance, immediately after the novelty’s introduction.
I will return to the relationship between nostalgia explanations and domestication theory below. Theories of domestication are generally used to analyze how media-technological and other novelties become part of everyday life through several phases or experiments. However, this article raises the question of what constitutes novelty. If the success of a product is explained through nostalgia, is it ultimately something other than novelty, or is it not at least at the beginning of the domestication process rather than in the middle of it? Another option is to consider that in many domestication or assimilation processes of novelties, it is essential to recognize, from the very beginning, through public discourse that the novelty actually contains much that is already known—albeit possibly forgotten—which makes the adoption of new elements easier and more desirable. Existing institutions such as media outlets support this way of thinking. Similarly, such thinking is supported by institutions, for example long-established companies and their utilized long-standing brands, which can also be viewed as institutions. In these situations, nostalgia fits precisely into the marketing toolkit of their operations and products.
In conclusion: nostalgia explanations as interaction processes
Nostalgia is an emotional term that is often used vaguely. Especially in news texts, people’s reactions to various cultural products can be explained by nostalgia without further consideration of whether it truly involves nostalgia or how nostalgia is actually defined. In this article, following Anu Koivunen’s (2001) analysis of popular culture, I have referred to one explanation for the popularity of the Pokémon Go game, which appeared in the news, as a nostalgic explanation. I have noted that nostalgic explanations are also apparent in the research texts that began to emerge soon after the release of Pokémon Go and aimed to explore the reasons behind the game’s popularity and players’ motivations, particularly through survey data. I have emphasized that nostalgic explanations arise from an interaction process involving multiple parties, such as the journalist, the user of the cultural product, the researcher, and the product’s creator. Nostalgic explanations are varied in nature, ranging from simple explanations to more interpretive ones.
Nostalgic explanations are not solely related to the rediscovery and use of old products and phenomena. They are also a key part of the cultural adoption process of many new products. Some products are consciously designed to be purely nostalgic, while others are hybrid products like Pokémon Go. In these cases, nostalgia operates alongside many other motivational factors. A nostalgic explanation is an accepted way to describe a person’s emotional connection to an object that links its user or audience to something previously experienced. Through nostalgic explanations, new products are connected to a broader category of similar products, which allows even those who recognize nostalgic experiences from other products to understand the current novelty.
Nostalgia can explain media usage in many ways. However, rather than relying on a single simple nostalgic explanation, multiple explanations and various categorizations of nostalgic experiences and actions are typically needed. It is also essential to understand that nostalgia is not the only explanation when examining why, for example, a user returns to previous media forms or content, or to those products that resemble or imitate them (see also Readhead Ahm 2020). The reasons for playing old games may include habits, curiosity, historical interest, following trends, a desire to stand out, or even a wish to preserve. Further research into these reasons is necessary to answer these questions.
Finally, it would be important to more closely investigate what players factually mean when they discuss nostalgia and how this articulated nostalgia connects to various modes of play and activity. It is also necessary to further explore the interaction process through which nostalgic discourse is constructed and transformed in the different phases of product adoption. Nostalgic discourse is constructed in relation to existing institutions, for example established product brands or companies that actively leverage the nostalgic potential of their products, including memory organizations that use nostalgia as a theme to reach audiences for their exhibitions.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the editors of this special issue and the anonymous reviewers for their comments. This research has been conducted as part of the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, funded by the Research Council of Finland (grant decision no. 312396).
Sources
All links verified 25.11.2025.
Newspapers and online sources
BBC News 16.7.2016, Pokemon and the power of nostalgia. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36780797.
Helahälsingland 15.7.2016, Madeleine Andersson: Pokémon Go-entusiasterna från Söderhamn:”Nu lever vi barndomsdrömmen”. https://www.helahalsingland.se/2016-07-15/pokemon-go-entusiasterna-fran-soderhamnnu-lever-vi-barndomsdrommen [Link no longer active].
Helsingin Sanomat 15.7.2016, Juuso Määttänen & Jussi Pullinen: Metsästäjät etsivät otuksia Esplanadilta.
Helsingin Sanomat 20.7.2016, Karoliina Liimatainen: Rikastuminen pelivillityksellä on vasta alussa.
Helsingin Sanomat 22.7.2016, Juuso Määttänen & Jussi Pullinen: Pokémon Gosta tuli jättivillitys maailmalla.
Helsingin Sanomat 15.8.2017, Anu-Elina Ervasti: Ultra Bra, Pokémon Go, eurodance – Miksi nostalgia tuntuu olevan nyt kaikkialla? Menneestä haetaan tunteita ja aitoutta, tutkija kertoo.
Iltalehti 19.7.2016, Jenna Lehtonen: Suosikin entinen päätoimittaja kehitti Pokémon GO:n kaltaisen mobiilipelin jo vuosia sitten. http://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/2016071821927490_du.shtml.
Ilta-Sanomat 15.7.2016, Miikka Hujanen: Pokémon-mania!
Ilta-Sanomat/Digitoday 13.7.2016, Miikka Hujanen: Kuumin sovellus juuri nyt! Uusi kännykkäpeli saa nuoret ryntäilemään kaduille Suomessakin. https://web.archive.org/web/20160713095919/http://www.iltasanomat.fi/digi/art-2000001219129.html.
New York Times 14.7.2016, Quentin Hardy: Pokémon Go, Millennials’ First Nostalgia Blast. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/technology/pokemon-go-millennials-first-nostalgia-blast.html.
Radio Kuopio 18.7.2016. http://www.radiokuopio.fi/uutiset/nostalgian-kaipuu-sai-nuoret-aikuiset-kaduille-Pokémon-kouluttajia-vilisee-myos-kuopiossa [Link no longer active].
Talouselämä 20.7.2016, Nostalgia, yhteisöllisyys ja uusi teknologia innostavat kokeilemaan Pokémon-peliä. http://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/nostalgia-yhteisollisyys-ja-uusi-teknologia-innostavat-kokeilemaan-Pokémon-pelia-6567817.
Vapa Media 14.7.2016, Janne Simojoki: 5+1 nostoa ilmiöstä nimeltä Pokémon Go. https://www.vapamedia.fi/2016/07/14/viisi-yksi-nostoa-ilmiosta-nimelta-pokemon-go/ [Link no longer active].
Yle uutiset 21.7.2016, Katariina Poranen: Peli-ilmiö voi kantaa kestosuosikiksi – ”Pokémon Go tulee ehkä suositummaksi kuin geokätköily”. https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9038188.
Literature
Alha, Kati, Elina Koskinen, Janne Paavilainen & Juho Hamari. 2018. “Why Do People Play Location-Based Augmented Reality Games: A Study on Pokémon GO.” Computers in Human Behavior 93, 114–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.12.008.
Batcho, Krystine Irene. 2013. ”Nostalgia: The bittersweet history of a psychological concept.” History of Psychology 16(3), 165–176.
Boym, Svetlana. 2001. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books.
Brause, Saba Rebecca & Grant Blank. 2020. ”Externalized domestication: smart speaker assistants, networks and domestication theory.” Information, Communication & Society 23(5), 751-763. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2020.1713845.
Davis, Fred. 1979. Yearning for Yesterday. A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: The Free Press.
Elo, Kimmo & Olli Kleemola. 2016. “SA-kuva-arkistoa louhimassa – digitaaliset tutkimusmenetelmät valokuvatutkimuksen tukena.” In Kimmo Elo (ed.) Digitaalinen humanismi ja historiatieteet. Historia mirabilis 12. Turku: Turun Historiallinen Yhdistys, 151–190.
Garda, Maria. 2013. “Nostalgia in Retro Game Design.” DiGRA ’13 – Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA International Conference: DeFragging Game Studies. DiGRA Digital Library. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/nostalgia-in-retro-game-design/.
Gazzard, Alison. 2013. “The Platform and the Player: exploring the (hi)stories of Elite.” Game Studies13(2). http://gamestudies.org/1302/articles/agazzard.
Grönholm, Pertti & Heli Paalumäki. 2015. “Nostalgian ja utopian risteyksessä.” In Kaipaava moderni. Nostalgian ja utopian kohtaamisia 1600-luvulta 2000-luvulle. Historia Mirabilis 11. Turku: Turun Historiallinen Yhdistys, 9–38.
Haddon, Leslie. 2007. “Roger Silverstone’s Legacies: Domestication.” New Media and Society 9, 16–24.
Haddon, Leslie. 2016. “Domestication and the Media.” In Patrick Rössler (ed.) The International Encyclopedia about Media Effects. John Wiley and Sons, London, Vol.1, 409–417. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64848/.
Hamari, Juho, Agdas Malik, Johannes Koski & Aditya Johri. 2018. ”Uses and gratifications in Pokémon Go: Why do people play mobile location-based augmented reality games?” International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 35(9), 804–819. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2018.1497115.
Harborth, David & Sebastian Pape. 2020. “How nostalgic feelings impact Pokémon Go players – integrating childhood brand nostalgia into the technology acceptance theory.” Behaviour & Information Technology 39(12), 1276–1296. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1662486.
Hård, Mikael & Andrew Jamison. 2005. Hubris and Hybrids. A Cultural History of Technology and Science. New York: Routledge.
Johannisson, Karin. 2001. Nostalgia. En känslans historia. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag.
Karlsen, Faltin & Trine Syvertsen. 2016. ”You can’t smell roses online: Intruding media and reverse domestication.” Nordicom review 37(1), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2016-0021.
Keogh, Brendan. 2017. ”Pokémon GO, the novelty of nostalgia, and the ubiquity of the smartphone.” Mobile Media & Communication 5(1), 38–41.
Knuuttila, Seppo. 2007. ”Epätarkka menneisyys.” In Seppo Knuuttila & Ulla Piela (eds.) Menneisyys on toista maata. Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 86. Helsinki: Kalevalaseura, 7–10.
Koivunen, Anu. 2001. ”Takaisin kotiin? Nostalgiaselityksen lumo ja ongelmallisuus.” In Anu Koivunen, Susanna Paasonen & Mari Pajala (eds.) Populaarin lumo – mediat ja arki. Toinen, korjattu painos. Taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, mediatutkimus, julkaisuja A:46. Turku: Turun yliopisto, 324–350.
Korkiakangas, Pirjo. 1999. ”Muisti, muistelu, perinne.” In Bo Lönnqvist, Elina Kiuru & Eeva Uusitalo (eds.) Kulttuurin muuttuvat kasvot. Johdatusta etnologiatieteisiin. Tietolipas 155. Helsinki: SKS.
Koski, Johannes. 2017. ”Pokémon tutkimuskohteena: tuoteperheen ja tutkimuksen aallot.” In Raine Koskimaa, Jonne Arjoranta, Usva Friman, Frans Mäyrä, Olli Sotamaa & Jaakko Suominen (eds.) Pelitutkimuksen vuosikirja 2017. Tampere: Tampereen yliopiston. https://www.pelitutkimus.fi/vuosikirja2017/pokemon-tutkimuskohteena-tuoteperheen-ja-tutkimuksen-aallot.
Lehtonen, Turo-Kimmo. 2003. “The Domestication of New Technologies as a Set of Trials.” Journal of Consumer Culture 3(3), 363–385.
Lie, Merete & Knut H. Sørensen (Eds.). 1996. Making Technology Our Own? Domesticating Technology into Everyday Life. Oslo, Oxford, and Boston: Scandinavian University Press.
Morley, David. 2003. “What’s ’Home’ got to do with it? Contradictory Dynamics in the Domestication of Technology and the Dislocation of Domesticity.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 6(4), 435–458.
Newman, James. 2012. Best Before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence. London: Routledge.
Paasonen, Susanna. 2001. ”Jotain uutta, jotain vanhaa ja jotain lainattua: www-sivut kuvallisena esitysmuotona.” In Hannu Nieminen & Jukka Sihvonen (eds.) Mediatutkimus – näkökulmia ja kartoituksia. Turun yliopiston taiteiden tutkimuksen laitoksen julkaisuja, Sarja A, no 47, 2001, 101–132.
Pantzar, Mika. 1996. Kuinka teknologia kesytetään. Kulutuksen tieteestä kulutuksen taiteeseen. Helsinki: Hanki ja jää.
Pasanen, Tero & Jaakko Suominen. 2021. ”Demoryhmästä pörssiyhtiöksi: Remedyn menestystarinan kehystys sanoma- ja pelilehdistössä 1997–2019.” Media & Viestintä 44(1),116–137. https://doi.org/10.23983/mv.107303.
Rasche, Peter, Anna Schlomann & Alexander Mertens. 2017. ”Who is still playing Pokémon Go? A web- based survey.” JMIR Serious Games 5(2). https://games.jmir.org/2017/2/e7.
Redhead Ahm, Kristian. 2020. “(Re)Playing (with) Video Game History: Moving beyond Retrogaming.” Games and Culture, (September 2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412020955084.
Rossi, Riikka & Katja Seutu (eds.) 2007. Nostalgia. Kirjoituksia kaipuusta, ikävästä ja muistista. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia 1137. Helsinki: SKS.
Saariketo, Minna. 2017. ”Älylasit tutuksi: Mediateknisten laitteiden kotoistaminen uutisissa.” WiderScreen 1-2/2017. http://widerscreen.fi/numerot/2017-1-2/alylasit-tutuksi-mediateknisten-laitteiden-kotoistaminen-uutisissa/.
Sallinen, Susanna. 2004. ”Koti-ikävä ja nostalgia arjen kokemuksena.” In Päivi Granö, Jaakko Suominen & Outi Tuomi-Nikula (eds.) Koti. Kaiho, paikka, muutos. Kulttuurituotannon ja maisemantutkimuksen laitoksen julkaisuja 4. Pori: Turun yliopisto, 79–102.
Schrey, Dominik. 2017. Analoge Nostalgie in der digitalen Mediekultur. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos.
Sihvonen, Lilli. 2020. “’Classics Age’ – The Flexibility of Planned Obsolescence in Terms of the Classic Finnish Board Game Kimble.” WiderScreen 14.10.2020. http://widerscreen.fi/numerot/ajankohtaista/classics-age-the-flexibility-of-planned-obsolescence-in-terms-of-the-classic-finnish-board-game-kimble/.
Silverstone, Roger. 2006. “Domesticating domestication. Reflections on the life of a concept.” In Thomas Berker, Maren Hartmann & Yves Punie (eds.) Domestication of media and technology. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 229–248.
Silverstone, Roger, Eric Hirsch & David Morley. 1992. “Information and communication technologies and the moral economy of the household.” In Roger Silverstone & Eric Hirsch (eds.) Consuming technologies: media and information in domestic spaces. London: Routledge, 15–31.
Silverstone, Roger. 1994. Television and Everyday Life. London and New York: Routledge.
Stewart, Susan. 1993. On Longing. Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Suominen, Jaakko. 2003. Koneen kokemus. Tietoteknistyvä kulttuuri modernisoituvassa Suomessa 1920-luvulta 1970-luvulle. Tampere: Vastapaino.
Suominen, Jaakko. 2008. “The Past as the Future? Nostalgia and Retrogaming in Digital Culture.” Fibreculture, issue 11 (digital arts and culture conference (perth) issue), 2008. http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue11/issue11_suominen.html.
Suominen, Jaakko. 2011a. “Pac-Man kaihon kohteena ja kokeilujen välineenä: luovasta aikalaisadaptaatiosta reflektiiviseen nostalgiaan.” WiderScreen 1-2/2011. http://www.widerscreen.fi/2011-1-2/pac-man-kaihon-kohteena-ja-kokeilujen-valineena/.
Suominen, Jaakko. 2011b. ”Retropelaamista tutkimassa – välitilinpäätös.” In Jaakko Suominen, Raine Koskimaa, Frans Mäyrä, Olli Sotamaa & Riikka Turtiainen (eds.) Pelitutkimuksen vuosikirja 2011. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto, 73–81. http://www.pelitutkimus.fi/vuosikirja2011/ptvk2011-08.pdf.
Suominen, Jaakko. 2012. “Mario’s legacy and Sonic’s heritage: Replays and refunds of console gaming history.” In Raine Koskimaa, Frans Mäyrä & Jaakko Suominen (eds.) Proceedings of DiGRA Nordic 2012. Tampere: University of Tampere. DiGRA Digital Library. https://dl.digra.org/index.php/dl/article/view/623
Suominen, Jaakko, Markku Reunanen & Sami Remes. 2015. ”Return in Play: The Emergence of Retrogaming in Finnish Computer Hobbyist and Game Magazines from the 1980s to the 2000s.” Kinephanos – Canadian Journal of Media Studies.
Suominen, Jaakko & Elina Vaahensalo. 2019. Current Trends in Retro Gaming Research. EasyChair Preprint no. 1094. https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/kjjf.
Turtiainen, Riikka. 2022. ”Liikunta, urheilu ja pelaaminen.” In Usva Friman, Jonne Arjoranta, Jani Kinnunen, Katriina Heljakka & Jaakko Stenros (eds.) Pelit kulttuurina. Tampere: Vastapaino, 197–217.
Töttö, Pertti. 2012. Paljonko on paljon? Luvuilla argumentoinnista empiirisessä tutkimuksessa. Tampere: Vastapaino.
Whalen, Zach & Laurie N. Taylor (eds.). 2008. Playing the Past. History and Nostalgia in Video Games. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Vihma, Antto. 2021. Nostalgia: teoria ja käytäntö. Helsinki: Teos.
Vilkko, Anni. 2007. ”Kodin kaipuu – tuntuma ajassa muuttuvaan tilaan.” In Seppo Knuuttila & Ulla Piela (eds.) Menneisyys on toista maata. Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 86. Helsinki: Kalevalaseura, 13–26.
Välisalo, Tanja & Raine Koskimaa. 2022. “Pelit ja transmediaalisuus.” In Usva Friman, Jonne Arjoranta, Jani Kinnunen, Katriina Heljakka & Jaakko Stenros (eds.) Pelit kulttuurina. Tampere: Vastapaino, 177–196.
Yang, Chia-chen & Dong Liu. 2017. “Motives matter: Motives for playing Pokémon Go and implications for well-being.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0562.
Zsila, Ágnes, Gábor Orosz, Beáta Bőthe, István Tóth-Királyab, Orsolya Király, Mark Griffiths & Zsolt Demetrovics. 2017. “An empirical study on the motivations underlying augmented reality games: The case of Pokémon Go during and after Pokémon fever.” Personality and Individual Differences 133, 56–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.06.024.
